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Edina man pleads guilty in Feeding Our Future fraud
Forty-year-old Sharmarke Issa of Edina pleaded guilty to wire fraud in district court Wednesday.
MINNEAPOLIS — The man formerly appointed by the mayor of Minneapolis to chair its Housing Authority Board pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges related to the Feeding Our Future (FOF) fraud scheme that took place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Forty-year-old Sharmarke Issa, of Edina, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in district court Wednesday. Prosecutors revealed Issa operated the scheme through the creation of his company, Minnesota’s Somali Community and his role as manager of Wacan Restaurant LLC, the site of which operated through a FOF sponsorship.
Court documents said Issa received millions through fraudulent food vendors and suppliers, causing the Minnesota Department of Health and program sponsors to dole out more than $7.4 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds.
Prosecutors said Issa and his codefendants also operated other shell companies to launder money from the FOF scheme, allowing them to purchase personal assets, like real estate.
Issa was appointed as board chair to the city’s Housing Authority in 2019 by Mayor Jacob Frey but resigned in the spring of 2022 over the fallout from the meal program scandal.
Federal officials said the five defendants got away with more than $25 million in misappropriated funds collectively, which they went on to use for things like vehicles, real estate and travel.
Issa’s four codefendants, Farhiya Mohamud, Haji Osman Salad, Fahad Nur and Anab Artan Awad are scheduled to go on trial for their respective roles in November, but sources tell KARE 11’s Lou Raguse both Abdi and Salad are also expected to enter guilty pleas later this week.
Earlier this month, former Feeding Our Future Executive Director Aimee Bock — accused of accepting bribes and kickbacks from people wanting to operate fraudulent meal sites for kids under the umbrella of FOF during the pandemic — argued in court that her case should be dismissed.
According to previous reporting from Raguse, the judge will rule on those motions before Nov. 1 and the trial is scheduled for February 2025.
Officials say 79-year-old Charles J. Finck of Elk River was piloting a single-engine Piper Cherokee when it went down near Wayne, Nebraska.
OMAHA, Neb. — Bad weather was reported near two Nebraska farm fields where small planes crashed minutes apart in August, according to preliminary reports from the National Transportation Safety Board.
The two crashes happened on Aug. 26, about 45 miles apart, and within 50 minutes of each other, the Omaha World-Herald reported Thursday. While the NTSB reports don’t yet cite a probable cause in either crash, both reports include witness accounts of low clouds and bad weather.
Joseph Rudloff, 73, of Norfolk, Nebraska, died when his single-engine plane, a two-seat RANS S19, crashed at 8:41 a.m. near the town of Crofton. At 9:31 a.m., a single-engine Piper Cherokee piloted by 79-year-old Charles J. Finck of Elk River, Minnesota, crashed near Wayne, Nebraska.
No one else was aboard either plane beyond the pilots.
Rudloff’s obituary described him as “an avid flier” who died after his plane was engulfed in thick fog. The NTSB report said that 11 minutes before the crash, he called a pilot friend saying he was over Yankton, South Dakota, but unable to land there because of poor weather. Yankton was seeing fog and light rain at the time.
Rudloff’s friend suggested he fly to an airport in Nebraska. Rudloff’s plane hit the ground near Crofton in the far northeastern corner of Nebraska.
That same morning, a landowner near Wayne heard an engine revving on a plane that turned out to be Finck’s. The landowner then heard a pop sound and saw a black plume of smoke coming from his cornfield. He told investigators that clouds were near the ground when he heard the plane fly by. Rain also was falling.
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Stillwater Correctional Facility on lockdown after staff exposed to an unidentified substance
Officials told KARE 11 that “several staff were taken to the hospital out of an abundance of caution.”
BAYPORT, Minn. — The Stillwater Correctional Facility was placed on temporary lockdown Thursday after staff members were exposed to an unidentified substance.
Minnesota Department of Corrections Director of Communications, Shannon Loehrke, told KARE 11 that “several staff were taken to the hospital out of an abundance of caution. The facility is on a temporary lockdown.”
The Minnesota Department of Corrections said an investigation is ongoing and they will provide more details as they become available.
No further information has been released.
Prosecutors charged 45-year-old Trevor Joseph Wunderlich with second-degree murder in the death of his 68-year-old mother, Charlene Gail Wunderlich.
HUGO, Minn. — The man who was the “person of interest” in the north metro search Monday night was charged Thursday morning in the murder of his mother.
Prosecutors charged 45-year-old Trevor Joseph Wunderlich with second-degree murder in the death of his 68-year-old mother, Charlene Gail Wunderlich.
According to court documents, Washington County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call from a home in the 15000 block of Ingersoll Ave. at approximately 5:55 p.m. on Sept. 16.
Dispatchers said they “could hear noises on the line consistent with an ongoing assault or struggle.”
When deputies arrived they found Charlene Gail Wunderlich on the kitchen floor severely injured, according to the criminal complaint. Deputies tried to “detain the defendant, but he ran into the basement of the home and fled out a rear door.”
Charlene Gail Wunderlich told the deputies that her son beat her before she lost consciousness. She was rushed to the hospital but died from her injuries.
Law enforcement agencies across the metro launched a manhunt for Wunderlich. Sheriff’s officials warned the public not to approach him as he was considered dangerous.
Just before 11 a.m. Tuesday, a resident in the 9800 block of 152nd St. N saw a man matching Wunderlich’s description in their trailer. KARE 11 spoke to the woman who owns the trailer, and she says her dogs were growling at the trailer, and when she opened the door Wunderlich was sleeping inside.
The woman said she screamed to her son who was working on the property to call 911. Her son had a brief conversation with Wunderlich and then Wunderlich ran down the road with no shoes to another property where, according to officials, police arrested him.
According to court documents, in 2021 Wunderlich was sentenced to 203 days in prison for violating a domestic abuse no-contact order. While serving that sentence, he was convicted of fourth-degree assault against a correctional officer.
